49ers’ coach speaks out what he feels

October 28, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Interim coach Mike Singletary lashed out at Vernon Davis on Sunday.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Mike Singletary realizes a public apology for his team’s poor play and his postgame trashing of tight end Vernon Davis were the most memorable highlights of the San Francisco 49ers’ sorry season.

Just don’t expect the interim coach’s next postgame news conference to be as entertaining as his animated debut.

“Maybe I’ll drink a little more water,” Singletary said Monday. “Maybe I’ll breathe a little bit.”

After a day to cool down from the 49ers’ 34-13 loss to Seattle, Singletary was ready to have a calm discussion with Davis, whose reaction to a personal-foul penalty drove Singletary to banish the tight end from the field.

“Vernon is not a problem guy,” Singletary said. “Vernon just forgets sometimes that the team is more important.”

And after benching J.T. O’Sullivan shortly before halftime in favor of Shaun Hill, Singletary also knows he’s got a quarterback controversy heading into the Niners’ next game at Arizona on Nov. 10.

But Singletary won’t attack San Francisco’s myriad problems by changing his style, which got wide public attention Sunday for the first time since the Hall of Fame linebacker retired after the 1992 season.

That’s good news for 49ers fans who thought Singletary’s frank, creative assessments of the 49ers’ shortcomings were a welcome change for a franchise that’s been among the NFL’s dullest outposts for the last half-decade under Dennis Erickson and Mike Nolan.

“I don’t talk a whole lot, but when I am talking, I do know what I feel, and I do know what I want to say,” Singletary said. “I don’t ever want to come in there and be a philosopher, an analytical [person]. That’s not who I am. What you see now is what I am, and that’s not going to change any time soon.”

While his predecessor usually wore expensive dress shirts and tailored pants to his Monday television appearances, Singletary showed up in khaki cargo pants and a T-shirt, looking less like a hedge fund manager and more like a drill sergeant on his day off.

Although fans still don’t know whether Nolan’s coaching protege can fix the 49ers (2-6) on the field, compliments for Singletary’s passion and straightforward style poured in from talk radio, the blogosphere and even the Candlestick Park fans who got Singletary’s firsthand apology after the game.

Singletary won’t lose the fervor that made him a well-paid motivational speaker before he got into coaching, but he hopes his team will give him much less reason to be furious when they return from their bye week.

He plans to spend several days mulling the quarterback situation with offensive coordinator Mike Martz after O’Sullivan’s three first-half turnovers convinced Singletary to yank him. O’Sullivan has thrown 11 interceptions and fumbled 11 times in his 71‚Ñ2 games as the 49ers’ starter, and his familiarity with Martz’s offense may no longer trump Hill’s steady ball security and game management.

“When you look at J.T.’s capabilities and the arm strength and all of those things, you’d say, ‘Hey, maybe that guy gives us the best chance to win,”’ Singletary said. “But if you look around the league, there are guys that are very talented, very smart ... but they can’t play quarterback. J.T. has done a good job. He’s just been inconsistent.”

Singletary also hasn’t decided on whether Davis will be back in his starting lineup after the pair’s public blowup on the sideline. Davis got a questionable personal-foul penalty for tapping Seattle’s Brian Russell on the facemask after a third-quarter catch, but Singletary got really steamed when Davis shrugged his shoulders at Singletary when he was yanked off the field.

Davis is a well-known hothead who frequently gets into scraps with teammates during practice, yet he’s usually calm and repentant the moment he removes his shoulder pads.

Singletary knows Davis possesses a measure of passion the Niners coach showed during his playing days with the Chicago Bears, but without the mental awareness that made Singletary among the best to ever play his position.

“Vernon is not a guy who doesn’t come to practice,” Singletary said. “You have to tell Vernon, ‘That’s enough. Don’t hurt the guy. That’s your teammate.’ He works his tail off. You don’t have a problem with Vernon that way. What you have a problem with is with some of the decisions he makes at crucial times.

“He’s not the kind of guy is a distraction on the team,” Singletary added. “[Sunday] was somewhat of a distraction, but everybody knows Vernon. They know full well who Vernon is, and I did what I had to do so that he wouldn’t be so much of a distraction.”